The global market for MIM and CIM has exhibited spectacular growth over the last two decades, and the trend is expected to continue, the report suggests, with larger companies weathering the economic storm, growing stronger and larger in the meantime. 

Key to this staying power has been diversification across other applications such as medical and dental, aerospace, electronics and communications, and luxury products. Additionally, the market has branched into several new applications, firearms being the most prominent.

Emerging markets

Growth in the cell phone and other handheld products and electronics industries have been a boon to the MIM industry for the last decade, and this has also resulted in the industry shifting its base slowly to emerging markets and Asia, where most of the electronics manufacturing takes place. This shift is also helping to open new markets for the technology, as the original technologies were developed in the US and were focused in the dental and automotive markets.

Another significant change in the industry is the size of the largest players starting to cross the US$50 million mark. The first two MIM manufacturers to break this barrier are the ARC Group, due to its 2012 acquisition, and Indo-US MIM. BCC Research says that there could be five to ten players crossing the US$50 million mark by 2018, with several crossing the US$100 million threshold as well. On the supply side also, several players are expected to be enjoying US$50 million in sales from MIM industry in the next few years.